Carbondale may be small in size, but it was built on big ideas.

Daniel Harmon Brush, Carbondale’s founding father, along with generations of his family, transformed a vast area of farmland into a bustling college town.

Like Rome, it wasn’t built overnight.

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His great-great-great-granddaughter, Mary Brush, spoke Wednesday night at the Student Center to the School of Architecture and the American Institute of Architects Illinois about her family’s history.

“Most people don’t know who founded their town, so Carbondale is also uniquely aware of their founder,” Mary Brush said.

She said she has been in the architecture business for 13 years and started out with building restoration at a residential firm. Later, Brush said, she was convinced by a friend to work with rappelling down skyscrapers — a practice of inspecting the sides of skyscrapers by a controlled descent down the side of the building.

Mary Brush said her grandfather followed engineers who surveyed the land for the southern Illinois railroad and directed them to put a railroad between two towns. Daniel Brush also purchased the land and created a business plan for the future city of Carbondale, she said.

“Over time he sold off the land for houses, became partners with the bank, opened a general store, became a lawyer, ran the town,” Brush said. “(He) did everything from start to finish, including founding the teachers’ college, which became SIU. On top of that, he ended up also being a war hero in the Civil War, so he was a busy guy.”

Carbondale wasn’t the only place where Mary Brush’s family made a difference. She said Harriet Root, the wife of Daniel Harmon Brush II, had two brothers, Cornelius and George, who went to Chicago and started the architecture firm Rapp and Rapp.

Mary Brush said before Cornelius moved to Chicago, he had some architectural experience with the company Holabird and Roche. The firm was vital for Chicago’s growth and development after a fire that almost completely destroyed the city, she said.

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“The Chicago fire of 1871 was fabulous for business,” Mary Brush said. “As a good preservationist, I can say that it was the best thing that ever happened, because what ended up was worthy restoration that shaped Chicago to what it is today.”

Mary Brush said her grandfather, Daniel Harmon III, would later work for Holabird and Roche after he earned an architecture degree. By the 1920s, he was a managing partner and worked there until his death in the 1960s.

Throughout the city, there are many buildings constructed by Holabird and Roche that shaped Chicago’s architecture, she said. Brush said notable projects include Soldier Field, the Palmolive Building and the Chicago Board of Trade Building.

Holabird and Roche is now known as Holabird and Root, and specializes in university science buildings. Brush said now the company is constructing a new tower south of the Chicago Loop.

Norman Lach, architectural studies program director, said hearing about the history of Carbondale and the Holabird and Root firm intrigued him.

“Some speakers just talk about one thing, but (Brush) blended this whole thing together,” he said.

Mary Brush also spoke of her plans as future president of AIAIL. She said she wants the organization to help architecture graduates find jobs.